It should be noted, in
addition, that it is immaterial what liquid there may be in the lake;
whether water, oil, mercury, or what not, the law will equally apply,
and so in a heat engine, the nature of the working substance, provided
that it does not change its physical state during a cycle, does not
affect the question of efficiency with which the heat being expended
is so utilized. To make this matter clearer, and give it a practical
bearing, I will give the symbols a numerical value, and for this
purpose I will, for the sake of simplicity, suppose that the fuel used
is pure carbon, such as coke or charcoal, the heat of combustion of
which is 14,544 units, that the specific heat of air, and of the
products of combustion at constant pressure, is 0.238, that only
sufficient air is passed through the fire to supply the quantity of
oxygen theoretically required for the combustion of the carbon, and
that the temperature of the air is at 60 deg. Fahrenheit = 520 deg. absolute.
The symbol T represents the absolute temperature of the furnace, a
value which is easily calculated in the following manner: 1 lb. of
carbon requires 2-2/3 lb. of oxygen to convert it into carbonic acid,
and this quantity is furnished by 12.2 lb. of air, the result being
13.2 lb. of gases, heated by 14,544 units of heat due to the energy of
combustion; therefore:
14,544 units
T = 520 deg.
Pages:
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33